


Spinning Between Constellations

by lastingdreams



Category: Firefly
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-25
Updated: 2012-06-25
Packaged: 2017-11-08 12:03:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/443004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lastingdreams/pseuds/lastingdreams
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Badger calls Mal up for another job, with one stipulation: River's gotta come along. Cue River being charming, Jayne being his burly self, and Mal getting the brunt end of trouble.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spinning Between Constellations

**Author's Note:**

  * For [teShara](https://archiveofourown.org/users/teShara/gifts).



> teShara, I kept your prompt in mind as much as I could, so I hope you enjoy how I've worked with it :)

Mal was sitting in the pilot's seat swiveling about when the familiar ding of an incoming wave drew his attention.

"Badger, what do you want?" was Mal's curt greeting.

"Tsk, tsk, now there's no way of speaking to your benefactor, is it?"

Mal gave no response. Badger coughed on the other end.

"Well. Why don't you come down to Persephone for a bit of rest, and we can talk business."

The sound of metal clattering in the background resonated down the hall of Serenity.

"A bit of trouble?"

"None concern of yours."

River took this opportune moment to crash through the bay doors followed by Kaylee chasing after her. River had some kind of wrench in her hand and the grease on her face gave away their activities in the engine room.

"Sorry Capt'n, didn't know you were taking a call."

"Engine's beginning to speak to me," River said while waving the wrench about.

“Ahem,” Badger coughed again, reminding them he was still there. "Is that the young lady from Titan?"

River came over and quirked her head towards the screen. She tapped the picture of his face lightly and said, "Well, if it isn't the little king." The cockney accent flowed easily off her tongue.

"River," Mal cautioned.

Badger leaned closer to the screen. "River?"

Mal saw a glint of something in Badger's eyes and thought it best to usher the girls out of the room. Once he was alone again, he looked at the crime lord expectantly.

“She’ll be useful for this next transaction.”

“No, no, no. You ain’t dealing with her.”

“No girl, no go,” Badger countered.

Mal thought for a moment, whether he should risk putting a girl who could see into people’s minds and kill with her dancy feet in the same room with their main ‘business’ contact on that planet.

"I'll wave you when we're dockside."

~~~

“It’s a bad idea,” Simon said, as he and the captain were walking towards the medical bay.

“I’m just as weary that our pretty little ballerina is going planet-side, but if she recalibrates one more thing on this ship, we’ll be flying a different machine.”

“I thought Wash said Serenity was running smoother than ever.”

“Might be some truth to that, but the ship’s not meant for these kinds of modifications. Not to mention, Kaylee might kill me in my sleep with some hard engine-y parts.  
Simon pursed his lips.

“We’ll be fine. Jayne’s coming along, standard procedures. She won’t come to any harm. ‘Sides, Zoe said Badger took a liking to her.”

Simon sighed, “That’s what I’m worried about.”

~~~

Jayne didn’t like the vibe of this. River coming along was messing with his crime-doing mojo.

“If the price is right, darling,” Badger drawled as he watched River intently. She was twirling around his hole-in-the-wall business headquarters as if not paying attention at all. Jayne knew better though, he knew she saw beyond words.

“And what’s in it for me?” River drawled back in that thick cockney accent. Mal hadn’t yet asked how she came up with that, nor had Badger asked why she sometimes fell out of it.  
She grabbed one of the wooden poles holding up the room and swung around it.

“Oh ho, wha –whatever you like,” Badger managed. River gave him a demure smile, long strands of dark hair falling into her face. She had him exactly where she wanted him.

Jayne’s patience was at its limit and he stepped forward, picking up a slice of sandwich from the table. He swallowed it in one go, then said, “We want 500 for the job.”

Badger turned to face him, incredulous. “Ni da chun dan!* What part of ‘whatever you like?’ includes you? I was speaking with River, and you’re certainly not wearing a dress or dancing as lovely as she is.” He turned to give her a toothy grin.

River had resumed dancing, while Jayne closed the distance between the table and where Badger was sitting. “500 and that’s final.”

Badger wasn’t fazed, he had dealt with more menacing men. He looked squarely at Jayne’s looming figure and said, “Isn’t Jayne a girl’s name?”

Just as Jayne’s fist was about to make contact with the dealer’s face, River kicked his stomach and pushed him back. Mal looked on with amusement.

Badger’s mouth hung open, his first experience with this side of River. “I like you more and more, xiao mei**. I’ll give you 600 just for that move, love.” 

“Deal. Pleasure working with you,” River said and stepped out of the room, leaving Jayne groaning on the floor.

“Pleasure working with you,” Badger snickered down at the larger man. Jayne gave him a threatening look and walked out.

Mal was still sitting at the table. “Those kids, doing my job for me. Now, let’s talk details.”

~~~

It was meant to be a simple train job, one where Badger’s old mates were trading off some antique collectibles from Titan. That’s where River came in. Badger thought she could help charm these men (as she had charmed him), being that they were all from the same homeland. Not even ten minutes into ‘chatting’ with these guys, River went off on another one of her psychic-y jumblings and spooked the guys. She started rattling off names of the people the men had killed in order to get the items, including descriptions of the poor old gentlemen and how the wife found them with blood smeared all over the room. She knew too much, always knew too much.

Mal wasn’t sure what kind of god he pissed off in his past life for this to be happening, not that he believed in a god, but he sure as hell was feeling the pain. He had a shiny new hole near his gut, was running out of bullets, with only wooden carts to act as cover between him and Badger’s ‘friends.’

“Wash, how much longer?” He yelled at the pilot who was scheduled to pick him up, like, now.

“Five minutes max. How are you holding up?”

“Not holding. Where’s Jayne, Zoe, and River?”

“They’re safe. Simon’s patching up Badger. Just hang on, Mal.”

“Huh,” he scoffed. “You can leave him to die,” he muttered as he shot another round at the other side. At least the rest of his crew had gotten away safely before bullets started flying.

~~~

“Tell me you got the crates,” Mal said, struggling against Simon to talk to Zoe standing in the medical bay’s doorway.

“Yes sir.”

Jayne chimed in with his two cents. “Yes, that’s great. Now we can dump that skunk off this boat.”

"Explain to me why he’s here again,” Zoe asked.

“Never trust a man who says he’s mates with trading partners. Never such a thing.” With that statement, Mal fell unconscious under the influence of the doctor’s drugs.

“ _You_ trusted him,” Jayne said. “Careful not to leave me alone with that man. Vera’s been awfully restless.”

~~~

A few hours later, Jayne found Badger’s patched up form sitting on one of the crates in the cargo bay writing something in a book. He sat himself just below the stairway with a perfect view of the criminal. He quietly, but intently sharpened his knife, the smooth slicing sound of metal on hard surface echoed eerily around them.

Inara’s shuttle doors creaked open, River stepping out, first with her left foot, then carefully placing her right foot in line.

“Come in for tea anytime, dear,” Inara said, while petting the young girl’s hair. “We also have to take care not to leave this tangled all the time.”

Badger’s face perked up at the sight of River, while Jayne leered from below the stairs. “What else were you doing in there?” He began to picture the types of things his old crewmates said Companions could do (he could never attract nor afford one himself), completely missing River standing behind him. He felt her hair trickle down his bare shoulders first, as she walked around him, then planting herself squarely in his lap.

“Gentle touches, desperate sighs, those fleshy pleasures. Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Jayne was feeling mighty uncomfortable, but she put him out of his misery quickly, getting up and laughing. He never did trust womenfolk, especially this one. Still as creepifying as when he first met her.

“So you consider me a woman,” River spoke softly as he traced her fingertips lightly over the surface of his exposed arms.  
Badger was mesmerized by this scene, speechless. 

“Cat got your tongue?” River asked as she swayed slowly towards him, one step at a time. “Can’t believe everything you hear.” She switched back to the accent that he loved to hear from her, it reminded him of home. 

“But you’re far away from it, aren’t you?” River said with her normal voice.

Badger looked nervous. “What are you saying, darling?”

“Ol’ champs spending nights at the pub, lush green hills. All burned. They say smell hits your brain first. Thought memory was fading, but it’s seared into your eye sockets.”

Badger shook his head, “No, stop it. What’s in her brain?”

Jayne smirked, not stopping her. He knew too well that this innocent looking girl was like a sandstorm –tiny granules in the wind, harmless until it hits you all at once, spinning and sucking you into the blurriness.  
“She’s _real_ sick. She can kill you with her brain.”

River took one final step in front of the crime boss and pointed her finger directly at his heart. She inched in and pushed.  
“The king’s rolling off the hill.”

Badger jumped back a foot, scrambling to get off the crate and as far away from her as possible. “Get me off this ruttin’ boat. Tien ah***, you’re all insane.

Jayne crunched over laughing as Badger ran off in the opposite direction. River turned around and shrugged.

“Sanity is a matter of perspective. The black will drive you mad if you let it. Unless it’s the only thing you’ve ever known,” Mal said, stumbling into the cargo hold. “Nicely done,” he nodded towards River. She took no notice and danced her way off to the kitchen.

**END**  
* Ni da chun dan –you big moron  
** Xiao mei –young girl, little one (can be a term of endearment).  
*** Tian ah –God


End file.
